
A segment of the 2024 auction records’ table of contents
In 2024, I collected data on the art market, recording over two hundred auctions. I do so to keep a record of the areas of the secondary market relevant to our gallery. We can also use them to pick up on certain trends. On my 2024 spreadsheets, I listed the data for two hundred eleven sales. In looking at the numbers, it wasn’t very reassuring to see that 59.7% of all the auctions documented failed to reach their total estimates. Seventy-four sales made their estimates, with only eleven surpassing them. The average sell-through rate at the sales covered was 79%. Christie’s seems to have done relatively well, though. The 71 Christie’s sales I recorded in 2024 produced an average sell-through rate of 85%. The average hammer prices at their New York, London, and Paris locations exceeded their average estimates. Other than this, many of the major auction houses performed relatively poorly last year. But it may not be so terrible when you consider the context.
Daniel Cassady of ARTnews wrote (I think rather sensibly) that the 2024 market was not a slump but rather “a return to, and acceptance of, reality.” With the blockbuster sales that the major auction houses have hosted in the recent past, the art world’s expectations of perpetual growth may have been unrealistic. The collections of Paul Allen (sold at Christie’s in 2022) and Emily Fischer Landau (sold at Sotheby’s in 2023) may have set the bar too high. Therefore, anything that doesn’t live up to these gargantuan standards is considered a flop when it would be perfectly normal at any other time. At the end of the day, people will always buy and sell art regardless of the ebbs and flows of the market. Some commentators have remarked that the ‘worst’ is behind us.
2024 Art Market: Doomed or Dormant?
A segment of the 2024 auction records’ table of contents
In 2024, I collected data on the art market, recording over two hundred auctions. I do so to keep a record of the areas of the secondary market relevant to our gallery. We can also use them to pick up on certain trends. On my 2024 spreadsheets, I listed the data for two hundred eleven sales. In looking at the numbers, it wasn’t very reassuring to see that 59.7% of all the auctions documented failed to reach their total estimates. Seventy-four sales made their estimates, with only eleven surpassing them. The average sell-through rate at the sales covered was 79%. Christie’s seems to have done relatively well, though. The 71 Christie’s sales I recorded in 2024 produced an average sell-through rate of 85%. The average hammer prices at their New York, London, and Paris locations exceeded their average estimates. Other than this, many of the major auction houses performed relatively poorly last year. But it may not be so terrible when you consider the context.
Daniel Cassady of ARTnews wrote (I think rather sensibly) that the 2024 market was not a slump but rather “a return to, and acceptance of, reality.” With the blockbuster sales that the major auction houses have hosted in the recent past, the art world’s expectations of perpetual growth may have been unrealistic. The collections of Paul Allen (sold at Christie’s in 2022) and Emily Fischer Landau (sold at Sotheby’s in 2023) may have set the bar too high. Therefore, anything that doesn’t live up to these gargantuan standards is considered a flop when it would be perfectly normal at any other time. At the end of the day, people will always buy and sell art regardless of the ebbs and flows of the market. Some commentators have remarked that the ‘worst’ is behind us.